Growing kenaf

Originally from the East Indies, kenaf Hibiscus cannabis is an annual plant (a relative of cotton and okra) growing from seed to fifteen feet in as little as five months. Kenaf is less vulnerable to climatic whims and pests than other similar crops and so requires lower inputs and management. Its drawback is its seasonality, requiring storage which can lead to losses from fungi and rot and complicating milling where mills require an even flow of material for maximum efficiency. Kenaf has long bast fibers (similar to flax and hemp, and equivalent to pine) which produce porous, high-strength paper with increased opacity and lowered sheet thickness. Superior to wood fibers, kenaf can help reinforce the broken and short fibers of multiply-recycled waste paper. Kenaf yields many products and has been used as fuel, animal bedding, oil absorbent, and particle board for wall panelling.

The US Department of Agriculture started kenaf research thirty years ago. In 1981, the US International Paper Mill carried out a commercial-scale newsprint run that demonstrated the feasibility of a kenaf-based publication. But the wood pulp industry resisted retooling the mills. For a planned 35,000-acre kenaf operation in Texas that could significantly wedge into the paper market, $360 million had to be raised for a new mill and harvesting equipment. Kenaf is now grown for paper fibre in Texas, Thailand, and China. Kenaf can be used to fabricate tissue paper, paperboard or roofing felt. Texas produces kenaf interior mouldings for cars. Start-up processing plants in California, Louisiana, and New Mexico will make a major attempt to enter the paper market. Prices remain ten to fifteen percent higher than premium recycled papers.

Australia seriously considered kenaf for newsprint but could not arrange the financing and the income security that farmers required before they dared switch to another crop. A similar attempt failed in Thailand.